Ecuador's president seeks constitutional reform to allow foreign military bases in country
Military facility stopped operating after former President Correa decided not to renew agreement that allowed US to carry out anti-drug air operations from Ecuador
Laura Gamba Fadul |
17.09.2024 - Update : 17.09.2024
Ecuador's president seeks constitutional reform to allow foreign military bases in country
Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa will seek changes to the country's constitution to allow foreign military bases to be established in the country, he announced Monday.
"Today we will present a partial constitutional reform to the national assembly which substantially modifies article 5 of the constitution that prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases and facilities that have military purposes. In a transnational conflict we need a national and international response," Noboa said in a video he posted on X that was recorded in the same facilities where the Manta Base operated.
The Constitution of Ecuador explicitly prohibits the installation of foreign military bases in its territory. The measure was imposed during the administration of President Rafael Correa, which culminated with the departure in 2009 of a base that the United States occupied in Manta, Manabí for a decade.
Although Correa’s government received criticism, saying that this led to an increase in drug trafficking and violence in the country, his government claimed at the time that the US withdrawal had brought greater security to the country. The ban was intended to reject the control and influence of foreign powers in defense matters.
More:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/ecuadors-president-seeks-constitutional-reform-to-allow-foreign-military-bases-in-country/3331949
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This is the way President Noboa's father, and Ecuador's wealthiest man, and 5 times Presidential campaign loser, Álvaro Noboa likes to run things in Ecuador:
Ecuador: Escalating Violence Against Banana Workers
Banana workers in Ecuador are facing an onslaught of illegal firings, violence, and intimidation as they try to exercise their rights to organize and strike, Human Rights Watch said today.
The violence has been concentrated at the Los Álamos plantation group on Ecuador's southwestern coast, where at least ten striking workers were shot on May 16 by assailants. Los Álamos is owned by the Noboa Corporation, whose owner, Álvaro Noboa, is a leading presidential candidate in Ecuador's October elections.
"The efforts to stop unions on the banana plantations have been going on for a long time, but now we're seeing a descent into pure thuggery," said Carol Pier, Labor Rights and Trade Researcher for Human Rights Watch. "The Ecuadorian government has a responsibility to prevent this kind of violence."
On April 25, Human Rights Watch released Tainted Harvest: Child Labor and Obstacles to Organizing on Ecuador's Banana Plantations, a 114-page report that detailed impediments to unionization and the widespread use of hazardous child labor on Ecuador's banana plantations.
At approximately 2:00 AM on the morning of May 16, between 200 and 400 hooded, armed men entered the Los Álamos plantation group, where workers living on the plantations were sleeping. Reports indicate that the hooded men banged on workers' doors with rifle butts, dragged roughly eighty of them from their homes, hit many with rifle butts, insulted them, looted their homes, and told many that they would be killed and dumped into the river. The hooded men also fired at at least one striking worker, injuring him critically and causing the subsequent amputation of his leg. Approximately six hours later, about six policemen reportedly arrived at the plantations.
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According to reports, the injured worker whose leg was later amputated needs blood transfusions, which he was allegedly initially denied because his employer failed to make mandatory Social Security payments as required by Ecuadorian law. To ensure that the injured worker received the necessary care, a workers' organization signed as guarantor.
"This is an example of what happens when you have weak labor laws and even weaker enforcement," said Pier. "Workers should not be threatened, beaten, or shot for exercising their constitutionally protected and internationally recognized human rights."
More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/05/21/ecuador-escalating-violence-against-banana-workers
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Noboa's history of worker abuse, and child labor:
Wikipedia:
Álvaro Noboa Pontón
Child labor
Noboa Group was also criticized in a HRW investigation into child labor practices in the banana industry.[25] In April 2002 Human Rights Watch released a report that "found that Ecuadorian children as young as eight work on banana plantations in hazardous conditions, while adult workers fear firing if they try to exercise their right to organize."[26]
Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole, Favorita and Noboa's company were all accused of being supplied by plantations on which children worked. Noboa's company claims that to be untrue since child labor in the agricultural sphere is part of the existing countryside culture which not only asked but demanded the performance of some type of agricultural labor from its siblings during vacations, in order to make ends meet, and to avoid vagrancy and therefore the possibility of delinquent behavior. It was pointed out that the work performed by these minors, and which fulfilled social and family-oriented needs, was always adequate for their age group and received all guarantees and conditions contemplated in social and labor legislation. It was said to the public: "Ever since abolishment of child- labor became a reality in agricultural concerns, Noboa Corporation took corrective measures to the extent that child- labor has been non-existent for many years not even for minors 15-18 years old which is permissible by law, due to consistent political attacks which distort the truth of the matter."[27]
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Shell companies
Tax evasion
Legal issues
. . .
Denunciations and attacks against him
Over the course of his public service career, which began in 1998 with his first-time candidacy for President of the Republic, Noboa has been the object of multiple denunciations and labor- and tax- related allegations, as well as political and personal, ideological attacks, by what he describes as powerful and influential political and commercial adversaries from within the country who wish to do him harm via a permanent smear campaign aimed at denigrating his honor and that of his family, thereby evading his fight against corruption on behalf of the poor and undermining his aim to transform Ecuador into a developed country. In July 2009, Noboa defended himself via a public communication directed to both the country and the entire world and published by the Ecuadorian press, in which he characterizes as vile and perverse all of the infamies that have been brought against him, either directly, or through third parties, over the course of the years.
Remonstrating, he pointed out that, "I have been attacked through my businesses, being discredited that I don't pay sufficient taxes, despite the fact that I, and the companies, are among the biggest contributors in the country. Without success, they have tried to make an enemy of me among the workers of my businesses, when in reality I maintain excellent work relations and a great sense of affection towards my workers and employees. They have wanted to prosecute me in order to take as much money as possible from me. They have wanted to ruin me. They have wanted to convince Ecuadorians that I am just one more heir, however what I own, I have through my own labors of more than 40 years. They have wanted to accuse me be unfair economically to my siblings when those family members are all very well off and I have never affected them. They have wanted to damage my image with slander of all kinds. They have attacked my sense of honor."
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_Noboa
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Father, Álvaro.
Sonny boy, El Presidente Daniel!